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L.A. GUNS, Rios, Bradford 18 June 2011

Wild horses wouldn't have kept me from a happy jaunt across the Pennines to see one of my favourite rock bands of all time - LA Guns - with the legendary Tracii Guns at the helm.

As the story rumbles on regarding both sides of the LA Guns situation (there are currently two LA Guns bands doing the rounds the other one of which is headed by Steve Riley and British frontman Phil Lewis), it was nice to switch off from all of that and just let the music speak for itself.

Preceded by a number of local bands and supported by a cool Californian outfit - Venrez - LA Guns took to the stage and raised the roof right from the start.

And added to that, Tracii has got renowned frontman and one time member of the official LA Guns family, Jizzy Pearl back in to kick ass on the vocals - could this get any better?

Obviously I feel that no amount of time would have been enough to satisfy when watching this group but they belted out as many tracks as they could, such as 'Electric Gypsy' taken from the band's first ever album release way back in 1988 and including a few hits from the 'Shrinking Violet' record from Jizzy's time as the singer in the group back in 1999.

'Decide' from that same album was just great and a perfect track for a live set with a heavy, bluesy sound without the raw edge of some of the other hits - these guys play it lots of different ways, no one trick ponies here!

Then more classic stuff from 'Never Enough', it's a crowd pleaser, thank goodness for songs like this and more of the same with 'Over the Edge' from the massive 'Hollywood Vampires' album.

Of course they can't do a show like this without 'The Ballad of Jayne' and another early LA Guns hit 'One More Reason'. The extent of the back catalogue is pretty damn big and most fans want to hear everything anyway - hey!

They tried their best and I think they pulled it off pretty nicely. An encore of the Love/Hate hit 'Black Out in the Red Room' and finishing with 'Sex Action' and I think that was a good night's work for everyone concerned.

The boys played it right on the money and the band look comfortable and happy with each other right now. It all works really well and the dynamics seem to be perfect.

There are no gimmicks or egos with this group! It's intense, loud...and live. Now I know the word 'legend' is used all too liberally these days but you don't have to be knocking on heaven's door to have that title bestowed on you.

So in this case for those about to rock...step forward Mr Guns... we salute you! Review by Judith Reeves


Review by Judith Reeves